Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey
Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey is a dark ride themed after J.K Rowling's bestselling books at the Wizarding World of Harry Potter in Islands of Adventure. The ride opened on June 18, 2010 along with the rest of the popular park section. Ride summary The ride begins with a dousing of Floo Powder from Hermione Granger, who asks the guests to say, "Observatory" in order to transport them to their desired location, and the enchanted bench flies off through the Floo Network to the Astronomy Tower. The guests leave the Astronomy Tower through its fireplace and enter the Observatory, where they look out through the open arches to the hills and lake outside Hogwarts' boundary. As the guests fly out of one of the Observatory's arches, the ride smoothly switches to a wrap-around projection screen and they follow Harry Potter and Ron Weasley around Hogwarts' buildings and towers to a Quidditch match. As Harry and Ron travel under a bridge, Hagrid yields the riders and asks them if they have seen a dragon. As Harry redirects the riders' attentions back to their journey, Hagrid's pet Hungarian Horntail dragon begins to chase the riders. The bench flies out of the projection screen and into a set of the uneven bridge that crosses the valley behind Hogwarts and, after falling out of a hole in the floor of the bridge, they encounter an animatronic dragon, which breathes false fire at them. The riders descend into a set of the Forbidden Forest where they encounter a figure of Aragog a large, sentient spider who spits water at them. As Hermione tries to help the riders away from Aragog and towards the castle, encountering many spiders on the way, they encounter an animatronic Whomping Willow which swipes at them, knocking them into the Quidditch pitch. The ride returns to a projection screen as the riders become caught up in Harry's and Ron's game of Quidditch. As Slytherin scores into Gryffindor's goal, Dementors arrive at the Quidditch pitch and Harry attempts to lead the riders away through the structure of the pitch and back to the school, but their bench falls into the long-abandoned Chamber of Secrets through a hole. The riders return to a real set as the Dementors appear from the pipelines and chase them. The skeleton of the long-deceased Basilisk lies on the floor of the Chamber, and expels Lord Voldemort's Dark Mark into the air as the benches are drawn into the mouth of Salazar Slytherin's statue. Many Dementors emerge from the darkness while one descends and attempts to suck out the rider's souls. This effect is achieved by projecting the rider's faces onto a cloud of fog in front of the Dementor, blasting cold air towards the riders, and using a heartbeat-like sound played through the sub-woofers built into the benches. After shaking the riders out of the trance, Harry causes the Dementors to flee with a protective Patronus charm. After the final Dementor, and while Harry uses his Patronus, the riders enter the final video dome segment, where the cliffs outside the Chamber of Secrets cave in. They fly over the Black Lake, back into Hogwarts and through the Main Hall and Grand Staircase, where they are cheered on by a series of on-screen characters from the movies who appear three-dimensional. Professor Dumbledore sends everyone back through the Floo Network to the Room of Requirement, where they exit their bench. Future locations The ride is planned to open with two other Harry Potter themed lands at select Universal Studios parks, like Universal Studios Japan and Universal Studios Hollywood. Both of these versions of the Harry Potter dark ride are scheduled to open somewhere in 2014. Currently, the ride is under construction along with the themed lands. Photo Gallery 250px-Wizarding_World_of_Harry_Potter_Castle.jpg|The Hogwarts castle where the ride is located. dada.jpg|The Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom (D.A.D.A.), which also doubles as part of the attraction's queue. Category:Islands of Adventure Category:The Wizarding World of Harry Potter Category:Islands of Adventure Category:The Wizarding World of Harry Potter Category:Universal Studios Hollywood